Half-Life combines great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King with intense action and advanced technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players need to think smart to survive. Half-Life has won more than 50 Game of the Year awards from publications around the world, and was named 'Best PC Game Ever' in PC Gamer (November 1999).

Throughout the game, both friends and foes behave in sophisticated and unpredictable ways, a result of Half-Life's powerful and innovative artificial intelligence. The intensity of the game also reflects the strong storyline, created by award-winning horror novelist Marc Laidlaw. Of course there's also a variety of exciting multiplayer scenarios, and an easy-to-use interface that will have you connected to the game of your choice in just seconds.

The Story

Deep in the bowels of the Black Mesa Federal Research Facility, a decommissioned missile base, a top secret project is underway. A portal has been opened to another dimension, and human science has never seen anything like the world on the other side. You are Gordon Freeman, a young research associate in the Anomalous Materials Laboratory. You have limited security clearance and no real idea of just how dangerous your job has become, until the morning you are sent alone into the Test Chamber to analyze of a strange crystalline specimen. A routine analysis, they tell you. Until something goes wrong.

Is it sabotage? An accident? Or is it something you did? All you hear is screaming; all you see is spacetime shattering. The next thing you know, the entire Black Mesa Facility is a nightmare zone, with sirens wailing and scientists fleeing in terror from the things their co-workers have become.

Hordes of creatures from the far side of the portal are pouring through rifts in the local fabric of reality. Monsters are everywhere. Madness rules. You head for the surface, but the usual routes are impassable-closed off by the disaster, infested with headcrabs and houndeyes and increasingly larger and hungrier creatures.

As Gordon Freeman, you must enlist the help of traumatized scientists and trigger-happy security guards to get through high-security zones, sneaking and fighting your way through ruined missile silos and Cold War cafeterias, through darkened airducts and subterranean railways. When you finally come in sight of the surface, you realize that the inhuman monsters aren't your only enemies-for the government has sent in ruthless troops and stealthy assassins. Their orders seem to be that when it comes to the Black Mesa, nothing gets out alive... and especially not you.

When even your own species turns against you, maybe you'll be glad to see another portal beckoning. But then again, on Earth you have allies; while on the far side of the portal, nothing at all is familiar except the sense of danger.

Half-Life takes advantage of licensed technology from id Software, but adds a whole new level of proprietary technology. Just a few of our technological advancements include: Enemy AI

Half-Life's monsters are also remarkably--even terrifyingly--intelligent. Our proprietary AI has them running in packs, assessing threats and showing a marked distaste for suicide runs. You'd better think as fast as they do.

Rendering Technologies

So you don't want to have to buy a special hardware accelerator just to get 16-bit color, colored lighting, blurring, translucency or other cool visual effects? Then don't. Half-Life has developed all these features in software so now they're an integral part of the gameplay, not just eye-candy. Of course, if you do have Open-GL, Direct 3D or MMX hardware, things will look mind-bogglingly cool.

Skeletal Animation System

Our new animation system lets us create monsters that are more spectacularly menacing than ever before. Half-Life's monsters have the highest polygon count, and the most fluid and complex motion ever seen in an action game.

Multiplayer

Joining a multiplayer game is now fast and easy, thanks to Half-Life's powerful interface. Find your friends, choose the type of game you prefer and let our master server do the rest. Choose from a variety of multiplayer gameplay scenarios, and use our decal technology to mark your territory with a personal or clan logo.